Had some swim lessons a few months ago with a former world level open water swimmer and pro triathlete
They said all good swimmers have their butt stuck out and the belly button almost rotated towards the floor when standing. Similar to if you were wearing high heals.
They said look around. And sure enough all the swimmers on deck had this posture
Just had a lesson last week at a new place I live. Instructor said tail should be tucked, not sticking out and abs drawn up. So more of a ‘proper’ posture
Also while we are here
First coach said arm recovery should be swinging and slashing the water upon entry
The other coach said no. Need high elbow and spear the water
But the two statements can be true. Swimmers have very bad posture. Ideally on land the posture would be more upright and not curved, where the but is sticking out with hips all out of line.
So it’s a good idea to work on posture and not develop tension and strain through the back and shoulders.
In terms of the recovery, I think a lot of this depends on the natural rhythm or timing of the stroke. Some people naturally swim on a catch up rhythm, while others gallop or have more of an overtaking style rhythm.
I think it’s quite hard to significantly change that timing and probably not a great idea in many cases?
But for a catch up swimmer spearing and not splashing a huge amount is a good idea as it will help them focus on what is important for their stroke, length and conservation of energy.
For an overtaking style swimmer that seems less important, they need length but they get their speed from higher rhythm and less from pure stroke distance.
Even so the very best swimmers don’t really splash that much
Alanywaythey just get their arms into position.
So swimmers should work on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Eg a really good endurance swimmer should just work on that rather than their tumble turns or kick. A sprinter should get faster and not do big damage to the speed with too much swimming.
But something I’ve noticed is that even paltrinieri who is a very good example of someone with a “bad technique”
Watch his swimming from under water and when his left hand is in front, his line is very long and he gets great tension and poise on that side. The right arm when in front, less so.
So he combines high rating with one half exceptional length style technique
Not sure if this is quite what you wanted to talk about
Also not an expert, a lot of experience but we’re always learning.
This was one of the most pushed concepts from the 80s even into the early 00s. In reality it doesn’t matter. What your arms do above the water does not matter as much as… whatever they do should not throw your body out of alignment or affect your rotation. Additionally, where your arms enter is more important than how, and that entry setting up for a powerful catch and lat-driven pull under the water.
The high elbow and spearing of the water can help with rotation and creating torque, especially if it’s hard. I kind of look at freestyle as a series of accelerations and decelerations and perhaps that’s a subtle difference between swimmers that are struggling to progress and better swimmers.
You often see videos of swimmers and their stroke is all done at one slow pace. Just my $0.02c, but I feel that the hand entry is fast, spearing the water, it extends , slows as you form the catch, then accelerates again as you pull back aggressively. The recovery is a deceleration. Obviously quite subtle, but you can do these “phases” much slower in training or exaggerate them and observe what happens when you accelerate and decelerate.
Spear in really hard and you’ll see what it does to your rotation, then slow it right down, form the catch and pull back really hard. All exaggerated but it emphasises what is actually happening in each phase. DPS drill is good for this.
Check this video out. As I said, very subtle, but you should be able to see the changes in speed:
